29. Ari
Ari
The second we’re out of sight of the office, Brody turns to hug me, whooping like a kid.
I try to arrange my features into something resembling happiness, but my mind is churning.
Did Andrei really say Victor? As in the demon who Ivan makes deals for cheese with and I…
well, let’s just say I have bigger problems than a lack of gouda.
How does Andrei know about Victor? Or perhaps more importantly, what does Andrei think he knows about Victor?
“We need to go out to celebrate,” Brody is saying. “This is amazing. We actually did it. And I thought it was all over. But you smashed it. Whoop.”
A few people turn to gawp at the overexcited puppy of a man dancing around in front of them.
“Aww, come on, Ari,” he says, taking my hands and trying to make me dance. I force my feet to move with his, but I’m a stiff marionette in his arms.
He drops my hands and takes a few steps back, head cocked in that adorable way he does.
“You don’t seem happy,” he says softly, the undercurrent of a question there.
But I can’t tell him what’s wrong.
“Did he say something? At the end?” Brody asks.
“What? No of course not. He was just telling me the pitch needs a lot of work.” I’m lying and I think he can tell.
But it isn’t like I can tell him the truth, is it?
“I’m happy, honestly. Just a bit shocked he wants us to meet the High Council.
” I laugh and try to shake the feeling of Andrei’s breath on my cheek from my memory.
“And you’re right. We definitely need to celebrate. ”
Clara has errands to run but Ivan needs no persuading to join us in the pub for an afternoon of day drinking.
We meet in the Crimson Well, one of the first ever vampire pubs in the city.
Before this place opened we were condemned to the shadows and the vampire members clubs with their cliques and entrance criteria and waiting lists.
Vampire society used to be so striated, full of rules on who could do what and where and who could talk to whom.
It was exhausting. But the Crimson Well helped change that.
Ivan beats us there and I’m relieved that he’s managed to snag the cosy table in the corner. You can’t book a spot here, again all part of that democratisation, so you have to get here early if you want a good seat.
He leaps up when he sees me and literally screams, jumping up and down a few times before folding me into a massive hug. “I can’t fucking believe it,” he shouts in my ear. “You did it.”
“Well, we got him to agree to us meeting the High Council,” I tell him. This isn’t a done deal by a long shot.
“Pfft. That’s a formality. You know Andrei has absolute sway over them.”
That’s what I’m afraid off. What is he going to demand from Only Fangs in order to make the right recommendations to his cronies? But I stuff that concern down, lock it away with all the other worries. This afternoon is a celebration.
Ivan asks a million questions, about Only Fangs and the pitch and about how convincing Brody was as a vampire.
Brody makes short work of a couple of pints as he gives a full blow by blow of the meeting.
But then he launches into a fairly long description of user interface development and I watch as Ivan’s eyes begin to glaze over.
Later, when Brody excuses himself to go to the bathroom, Ivan scooches over closer to me. “Cute but boring.” He says it like he’s delivering his final verdict in a legal case.
“He isn’t boring.” I feel the need to jump to Brody’s defence.
“He’s a nerd, Ari.”
“Yes. But that doesn’t make him boring.”
“Jesus. You actually do have the proper hots for him,” Ivan says. He winks at me. “You should just go for it. Finish what you started in Wales.” He waggles his eyebrows.
“Absolutely not. We talked about this the other night. He is my employee. And a human. And I don’t date anyway.”
“I wasn’t meaning you should date him.” Ivan’s eyebrows dance and he makes an extremely crude gesture to further illustrate the point he was making.
Matt arrives at five, apologising for having to work.
“We won’t hold it against you, you are a newbie after all,” Ivan slurs at him.
“But you need to play catch up.” Ivan drags him to the bar and I watch as he forces three shots down him.
Actually, forcing is totally the wrong word, Matt takes zero persuading, throwing bright green shots down his throat and then slamming the glass on the wooden bar.
After the third he leans his head back and howls like a werewolf. Ivan laughs and preens. Oh dear.
“I think you might need to rescue Matt from Ivan,” I lean in to whisper in Brody’s ear.
“Why?”
“Because Ivan will eat him alive.”
Brody blushes, the tips of his ears turning pink. “I think that’s what Matt wants,” he says softly.
“You don’t approve?” I ask with a raised eyebrow.
“I don’t want him to get hurt. But I also think he needs to get laid very very badly.” The second sentence slips out and Brody raises his hand to cover his mouth. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
I grin at him. A rare glimpse behind the mask. Maybe he isn’t such a goody-two-shoes all the time.
“It’s just, it’s been kind of a while. He doesn’t really date much…” he trails off as Matt and Ivan return to the table.
Clara is the last to join us, having been forced to finish the day by meeting with her father.
“Fuck I need a drink,” she exclaims as she plonks herself into the last empty chair at the table, the one I’ve been forced to guard all afternoon from people trying to claim it as their own.
At one point I had to bare my teeth at some little human who thought they deserved it more.
“How did it go with Daddy Dearest?” Ivan asks as he pours her a huge glass of red wine from the bottle on the table.
“He’s desperate for me to finally marry Luca.” She rolls her eyes and then downs the entire glass, smacking her lips loudly at the end.
“How much time did you manage to buy?” I ask her.
“He gave me the whole ‘you’re not getting any younger’ spiel.
And the ‘you need to face up to your obligations’ one.
And then we had the ‘don’t you want to make your mother happy’ conversation.
” She twerks her eyebrows at this one. Adeline is hardly a model for the nurturing maternal figure.
She spent most of Clara’s childhood pretending her daughter didn’t exist, like she was an irritating fly and she couldn’t understand why it was buzzing about her.
And then when Clara hit puberty, her mother gave her “the talk” one time and resumed pretending she didn’t exist. Unless she wanted something.
“It sounds hideous,” I tell Clara.
“Got me another ten years though,” she replies with a grin.
“Nice.” I high five her.
Ivan’s attention had been drifting towards Matt but now it snaps back to the table. “How much?”
“Ten.”
“Fuck yeah!” Ivan jumps up and quicker than a flash he’s by her side and enveloping her in a huge hug.
I catch the look on Brody’s face. Matt won’t be that speedy yet and I don’t think the pair spend time with other vampires. Or really anyone else outside the two of them. His expression changes to confusion and I can tell he wants to ask something but he’s too afraid to.
“You can just ask, you know,” I tell him softly. “These two are like open books, you can ask them anything. Just be prepared for a fully honest answer.” I say that last bit like the warning I intend it to be. Clara has no filter and Ivan has no shame.
“I just…” he stumbles. But then he clears his throat. “What are you buying time from?”
Clara pauses for a moment.
“I mean, I know it’s none of my business or anything—” Brody starts to stutter but Clara cuts him off.
“Marrying the man my father chose for me.”
Brody makes a face. “Like an arranged marriage?” He sounds shocked.
“Yeah.” Clara shrugs as if it’s the most normal thing in the world. It’s not rare rare in the vampire community, but it’s not something a lot of us buy in to. If you have to spend eternity with someone it’s generally better to vet them first.
“But that’s so….” He gropes for the word.
“Yeah,” Clara agrees. Because we all know what he’s thinking. Regressive. Misogynist. Archaic.
“Can’t you just say no?”
Clara laughs but it comes out more like a loud bark, reverberating around the corner of the pub. “You’ve met my father.”
“But there must be a way out.”
Clara shakes her head. “There’s a contract.” She shrugs. “It was all agreed when I was ten and my vampire credentials were finally confirmed.”
“But you were a child.” Brody isn’t trying to hide his shock now.
“So?”
“So? So? There is no way that contract is binding. You were a child.”
Clara looks at him for a few moments, at the earnest look of indignation on his face. She turns to me. “You’ve got a proper golden retriever here,” she says then moves her attention back to Brody. “One day I will marry Luca, there’s no way round it.”
“But—”
I put my hand on his arm to stop him from saying more.
“But’s that’s arcane.” Brody completes the sentence despite my warning.
“It is what it is.” Clara’s reply is nonchalant.
“It fucking sucks and I’m trying to buy all the time I can, but one day my luck is going to run out.
” She screws up her face. It isn’t that she’s totally against the idea of Luca in and of himself.
I haven’t spent much time with him but he’s attractive and charming and apparently not awful to be around.
But Clara wants to keep her freedom for as long as she can get away with it.
Brody turns to look at Ivan. “Do you have one of these arranged marriage thingies?”
Ivan shakes his head.
Brody turns to look at me.
“Oh hell no,” I tell him. “My parents were normal.”
“Your parents were most definitely not normal.” Ivan says with a grin. “Lovely. But definitely not normal.” Ivan turns to Brody. “Ari’s mum was human.” He says it like it’s a scandal.
“Oh, I didn’t realise you were—”
I cut him off. My heritage is something I don’t like to elaborate on.
Another hour later and the group has splintered off. Matt and Ivan only have eyes for each other. Clara is making the most of her freedom by chatting up the vampire bartender, who keeps pouring her drinks and laughing at every single word she says.
Brody pours a little more wine into our glasses and turns to face me.
We’re so close our knees are touching and the combination of the alcohol, his aftershave, and the sheer heat of him is making me feel tipsy.
But the good tipsy, the nirvana of tipsy when you want to stay at the same exact level of buzzed forever.
“Here’s to us,” he says as he raises his wine.
“To us,” I reply clinking my glass against his.
My eyes lock onto his. I can feel myself getting lost in his gaze, being pulled closer and closer towards him. My head says I should pull away and bring down the shutters again on… well, whatever this is. This thing growing between us, stretching its wings and filling the void.